


Reverberation

by misura



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 18:57:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7695622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I knew your father," Pym said. "He was a bully, a jerk and not half as smart as he thought he was."</p>
<p>Well. If that was how it was going to be. "I would add that he was a negligent, mostly-absent father figure, that he was a terrible human being, and that I blame all my good qualities of which there are many on my mother," said Tony. "Coffee?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reverberation

Tony told himself that he was going to be polite here. It would be something new, thus, it might even be something exciting - although probably not and besides, Tony was beginning to feel that perhaps 'exciting' was slightly over-rated in the current economy.

Anyway, Hank Pym. Billionaire, scientist, monk. (Not quite someone Tony should be able to relate to completely, in other words, but two out of three wasn't bad.) Father, too. Possibly on Team Cap but then, nowadays, who wasn't? Steve was just that kind of guy, plus, you couldn't really beat half a century of excellent PR, not that Tony was bitter about that or anything.

Tony's people had reached out to Pym's people, and Pym's people had said something Tony's people had translated as 'sure, let's meet' and now here they were.

(The actual message had been less polite. But, bygones. Politeness. The importance of peace-keeping.)

"Tony Stark, hi, thanks for coming." Presumably, Pym knew who he was, there being not a whole lot of other people around, aside from some people Tony adamantly refused to think of as bodyguards.

Presumably, also, Pym knew what it meant when someone held out their hand. Given that he didn't seem to be inclined to grasp it in his own for a good, manly, 'who winces first?' handshake, possibly not.

"I knew your father," Pym said. "He was a bully, a jerk and not half as smart as he thought he was."

Well. If that was how it was going to be. "I would add that he was a negligent, mostly-absent father figure, that he was a terrible human being, and that I blame all my good qualities of which there are many on my mother," said Tony. "Coffee?"

Pym didn't flinch, but Tony was very observant (if he did say so himself), and there'd definitely been a flash of _something_ in response to that first item on Tony's list.

(Tony's people - who were really Pepper's people, if you wanted to get technical about it, had put together a file to help prepare for this meeting. Being a busy man, Tony'd limited himself to looking at the pictures and the media fragments.)

"Let's cut the crap, shall we?" Pym said.

"No coffee, then, fine, just asking. Your call," Tony said. "Although really, they've got some good stuff around here. But you know what, your loss. Moving right along."

"I'm not going to tell you about the suit," Pym said, but he sounded like it might actually be negotiable, like what he was actually saying was that while he'd _prefer_ not to tell Tony about the suit, he knew, and knew that Tony knew, that he _was_ going to tell Tony about the suit.

Which was news to Tony, actually. "I've got the suit," Tony said. "Why would I need you to tell me about something I've already got? I mean, it's cute and all, don't get me wrong, I'm impressed, but, well, let's face it, mine's better. I'm not looking for a downgrade."

Pym scowled. "Owning something and understanding it are two very different things."

"Not if you're me," Tony said. "Trust me on this. You don't want to talk about the suit, no problem, we're not going to talk about the suit. Done. So what did you want to talk about?"

Pym scowled some more, and then he said, "Scott Lang," and Tony thought _oh_ because in some ways, maybe, he should have known. _Tony_ hadn't given suits to just anyone, after all; he'd built them for Rhodey and for Pepper. The two people he loved most in the world - and look where it had gotten them, really, in hindsight, he (and they, too, obviously) might have been a whole lot better off if he'd just picked some guy at random after some sort of vetting process to weed out any potential super-villains and/or megalomaniacs.

(Steve hadn't been either, though, so. No good choices possible, really.)

"Bit of an unlikely guy for a hero," Tony said, because when a guy single-handedly and single-mindedly brought down a corporation that he used to work for, the media tended to provide some excellent coverage of his subsequent trial.

Obadiah had been worried for a few weeks, Tony remembered, muttering something about doing some investigating to ensure it couldn't possibly happen at Stark Industries, but Tony'd reminded him that, hel-lo, not a corruption-ridden corporation who'd shamelessly fleeced their customers and committed fraud on an epic scale, so no point in getting all worked up, and hey, maybe look into hiring the guy after he got out of prison, by way of saying Stark Industries hadn't got anything to be ashamed of? Good PR and all that.

(Truth was, he'd felt kind of sorry for the guy. Someone who drove someone else's Bentley into a swimming pool to make a point might be a bit of a maniac, but he might also just be a pretty cool guy who knew how far to take a dramatic gesture; Bentleys, yes, but actual living and breathing people, no.)

"Oh, and you aren't?" Pym asked.

_Not anymore,_ Tony thought, but that was no way to think of yourself. 

"Scott's a good guy," Pym said. "He doesn't deserve to go back to prison simply for taking a political stand. So maybe he's made a few mistakes, some bad choices. Who amongst us hasn't?"

Tony wondered what Pym's bad choices had been, and whether or not they'd involved anything fun. Guy'd invented a shrinking/enlarging thingy; there seemed plenty of potential for fun there.

Also, he realized that at one time, he'd have said the answer to Pym's question would have been Steve.

Probably, at some point, he should stop thinking about that, about Steve, because honestly, it was getting both annoying and distracting, and it wasn't as if there was even any point to it - him and Steve, Steve and him, they were history. Burnt bridges, bittersweet memories, that sort of thing. Time to let go and move on. There was the Rhodey thing to fix, and the Pepper thing, and if Tony'd been bad at anything in his life ever, it was probably fixing things that weren't made of metal and plastic and other not-people stuff, so he should just focus on trying to get that right and forget about anything else.

Like Scott Lang going to prison again for doing what he felt was right. "I'm sorry, that's really not my call to make."

"Bullshit," said Pym.

"Sorry," Tony said, again. It was supposed to be a magical word, right up there with 'please' and 'thank you' but it seemed like the more you used it, the less magical it became, and Tony'd used 'sorry' a lot recently. "Sorry. It's out of my hands. I mean, that was the whole point, you know, that it wasn't all up to me anymore, one guy in a suit, calling the shots for everyone else. Because I fucked up."

"Stark," said Pym. "I'm not your therapist. You want to feel sorry for yourself, stop wasting my time and piss off. I'm here to make a deal. I thought _you_ were here to make a deal."

"Nope, sorry." Four times in barely a minute; not quite a new record, but edging into the top-8. "Just curiosity, mostly, and, I don't know, reaching out a bit? One billionaire scientist to another?" Testing the waters, getting a feel for the guy who might be putting more shrinking-and-growing suits on the streets in a matter of days, if the mood struck him - not that Tony'd have expected Pym to tell _him_ , if that was the plan. Still (he'd told himself) better the enemy you've met once, than the guy you'd sometimes heard your father talk about with equal parts admiration and annoyance.

"Well. This is disappointing," Pym said.

Tony almost said 'sorry' again, then decided that enough was enough and anyway, 'disappointing'? Really? He might be a screw-up who'd gotten his best friend shot, but if Rhodey wasn't going to blame him out loud or even call him a terrible friend, then Tony'd be damned if he put up with that sort of stuff from anyone else. (Unless that someone was Pepper, of course, but whole other kettle.)

"You do the crime, you do the time, isn't that what they say?" he said. "I'll have some coffee, by the way; sure you don't want some, too?"

"I'm not interested in coffee," Pym said.

The smart thing to do, for both of them, Tony reckoned, would probably be to end it there. Tony didn't need new friends (assuming 'friends' was even an option here) and he wasn't particularly keen on new enemies and/or people who hated his guts, either.

Still. "What are you interested in, then? Aside from that whole 'making a deal' thing which, yeah, sorry, I'd say 'wrong guy' only that would imply there's actually a right guy, which I'm pretty sure there isn't, so."

"There's always a guy, Stark," Pym said. "Just like, if you really want to, there's almost always a way to fix things. The only thing you need is to figure out in time what it is, because the longer you wait, the harder it gets, until one day, you realize you've missed your chance."

"Hypothetically, I suppose there might be a guy who would probably be able to help you out," Tony said. "I mean, if anyone can, he's your guy."

"I suppose he is. Pity," said Hank, "you know, I'd kind of gotten used to living quietly, mostly retired. Not going anywhere I didn't particularly want to go."

"Sounds boring," Tony said. "No offense, I mean, to each his own."

"I'll tell him you said hi, and that you're sorry." _Now_ Pym held out his hand. Tony considered ignoring the gesture for all of two seconds, before deciding that someone had to be the bigger man here, and that clearly, the guy who'd invented a shrinking-and-growing thingy wasn't up for it.

"Think that's going to cut it?" Tony asked. "I mean, apologies really aren't my strong suit, but, you know, I'm doing the best I can here."

"Not a chance in hell," Pym said, and left.

Tony considered calling someone (like Pym'd said, there was always a guy) and telling them Hank Pym would be looking for and probably tracking down the good guy formerly known as Captain America, but in the end, he figured his time'd be better spent calling Pepper and when she didn't pick up (as he'd known she would) he tried Rhodey, who did and who even sounded convincingly happy to hear from him.


End file.
